Jun 19, 2009 11:59 am US/Central
MSI Celebrates Milestone With Free Admission
Museum Is Celebrating 76 Years
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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The Museum of Science and Industry
CBS
If you're anywhere near Hyde Park, Woodlawn or South Shore today – or if you're out for a drive in that direction – you're in luck.
You can get out of the rain as long as you want at
the Museum of Science and Industry, because they're offering free admission for the day.
The museum, at 57th and Lake Shore drives, is celebrating its 76th anniversary, and is admitting all guests for free until museum closes at 5:30 p.m.
Also in progress Friday is a fascinating virtual tour of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, of which the building that now houses the museum was a part. The exhibition features an exploration of the many structures put up for the White City, including the Agriculture Building, the Casino, the Music Hall, and Christopher Columbus' three ships – Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria.
The museum is housed in the onetime Fine Arts Palace from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, a Greco-Roman building in the Ionic architectural style.
The World's Fair exhibit requires a separate ticket, which guests still must pay for on Friday. The special Harry Potter exhibit also requires a separate ticket.
The idea for the Museum of Science and Industry was spawned in 1911, when Sears, Roebuck and Company chairman Julius Rosenwald visited the interactive industrial and scientific exhibits at the Deutsches Museum in Munich and was inspired to open an institution like it in Chicago, according to the Encyclopedia of Chicago.
Before the MSI moved into the old Fine Arts Palace, it had housed the Field Museum until that institution moved into its current building farther north on Lake Shore Drive in 1920. Since then, the building had been vacant.
The building was gutted and its interior was redesigned in the art-deco style. It was outfitted with new interactive exhibits including the Coal Mine, which remains one of the museum's popular attractions.
The museum opened in 1933, a year after Rosenwald's death, but in time for the Century of Progress Exposition. It was the first museum in North America to showcase interactive exhibits.
More than 175 million people have enjoyed the museum in its long and successful run.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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